Metals & Mining industry has seen a decline in growth over the years, a quick look at the challenges of this sector. The Agriculture sector, which is unquestionably the largest livelihood provider in India, and most of the industries depend upon this sector for their raw materials. A brief overview at this sector and the road ahead.

METALS & MINING

India though recognised as a nation well endowed in natural mineral resources and ranked 4th amongst the mineral producer countries, behind China, United States and Russia, on the basis of volume of production according to the Report on Mineral Production by International Organizing Committee for the World Mining Congress, this sector has been seeing a steady decline. The contribution of the mining sector to India’s GDP has come down to 2% in 2012-13.

“The Indian mining sector has suffered from a global meltdown in commodity prices, subdued demand and rising costs (also among the trends) in the last two years. But what has probably hurt more has been the largely unchecked production and expansion of mines.” according to Kalpana Jain, Senior Director, Deloitte in India.

The three factors that can help the Indian mining industry recover include:

More power to the local community demands.

Resource nationalism needs to spreads: as government relations get marked by rising hostility.

Indian agriculture has undergone rapid transformation in the past two decades. From being a net importing country, India today consistently produces 250 million tonnes (MT) of food grains, 100 MT of rice, 90 MT of wheat, 35 million bales of cotton, and more than 18 MT of pulses. The growth is facilitated mainly by Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) system which is spread across the country.

Government support and policies of globalisation and liberalisation have opened up new avenues for agricultural modernisation. This has lead to commercialisation and diversification of agriculture. Investment from corporate houses has also triggered various technological and institutional innovations.

India has emerged as a major player in the global agriculture market. In the last five years, the country’s agriculture exports have tripled from around Rs 80,000 crore (US$ 12.75 billion) to Rs 2.32 trillion (US$ 33.99 billion)

Road Ahead

Steady investments in technology development, irrigation infrastructure, emphasis on modern agricultural practices and provision of agricultural credit and subsidies are the major factors that have contributed to agriculture growth.

However in order to meet the growing food grain requirements of the country, agricultural productivity and its growth needs to further improved. The growth target for agriculture in the 12th Plan is at 4% as compared to 3.6% for the 11th Plan.

By 2016-17, India growing at the rate of seven per cent is expected to reach the workforce demand of about 232 million from 229 million (in 2011-12) in agriculture sector which constitutes 44% of the total workforce of the economy. However, 95% of the workforce requirement is expected to be generated in informal sector more so in agriculture.